This workbook addresses questions frequently asked by young people new to recovery: What will I do? Who will I spend time with? How will I get through life without drugs? Why are drugs so hard to quit? The text underscores how the resilience of youth is eventually overwhelmed by the progressive nature of addiction. Contains a parable about burning down houses infested with singing rats.

The Introduction follows:
I. Introduction
Young people trying to get clean and sober often ask certain questions about life without alcohol and other drugs. The questions they ask most often are:
– What will I do?
– Who will I spend time with?
– How will I get through college or the military without drinking?
– How will I handle special occasions like my 21st? Graduation? My wedding reception?
– Why are drugs so hard to quit?

This workbook tries to help you answer some of these questions. As you go through the workbook, try to be as honest with yourself as you can. No matter how you answer the questions, stay clean and sober.

About the author Ken Montrose:

Blind cat
I did a lot of personal research into the life of an alcoholic. The last time I had a drink I made an illegal left turn at 3:00 a.m., hitting a county sheriff. I was $35K in debt. I had just gotten kicked out of my Ph.D. program. My divorce was a month from being final. I lived in an apartment with no furniture. My cat was blind.

When Even the Voices are Hungover
I learned about mental illness by spending ten years helping people with schizophrenia overcome addiction. We’d talk about why partying with the voices was a bad idea, or the importance of not mixing Prolixin with crack. I was humbled by folks who stayed sober despite delusions, paranoia, hospitalizations, and horrible medication side effects.

Write now?
I started writing when I was in my early thirties. I wrote Dancing With Rachel in 1995, got a literary agent, and became an expert on rejection letters. Greenbriar Treatment Center asked me to write the workbooks we gave to patients. We began selling them online and at conferences, where they were very well received.

Lucky me
I have a wife and two children. They amaze me everyday. I work at a rehab. The people there amaze me as well. Much of what I write is inspired by their struggles. I am working on AArdvarks another daily meditation book for recovering addicts, a series of short stories, and a novella about the clash between a shadow government, the real government, and people forced to take sides.